Introduction
The US healthcare system is undergoing numerous changes to meet the growing demand for medical services and the complexity of patient needs. Advanced medical technology has increased life expectancy, which has led to an increase in the elderly population’s need for health care. Nurses are the most affected by the changes because they are among the first to face the problem of a shortage of medical workers. Their roles are changing to include advanced nursing roles previously assigned to other healthcare professionals.
New Health Legislation and Nursing Practice
Throughout medicine, changes have influenced mainly the formation of the modern picture. Since the worldwide pandemic, there has been a shortage of nurses caused by longer working hours, higher burnout rates, and, thus, poorer quality of care (Lasater et al., 2020). Consequently, change has shaped the responsibilities of nursing today and continues to change along with societal changes.
As a result of healthcare system change, nurses must understand the drivers of change and gain the competencies needed to play a leading role in healthcare transformation. According to the US House of Representatives (2019), 203,700 nurses will be needed yearly to meet the increased supply of healthcare services, fill newly created positions, and replace retiring nurses (Committee Report, 2019). The Nursing Personnel Reapproval Act was passed among recent regulations to improve the quality of nursing education and practice (Committee Report, 2019). It has given nursing staff more opportunities to stay current, play a leadership role, and improve their well-being.
A recent federal law that will reform healthcare in the United States is the Medicaid Supremacy Preservation Act of 2019 (H.R. 3253, 2019). This bill aims to restructure the Medicaid program by expanding some provisions (H.R. 3253, 2019). Another Medicaid reform in this bill allows the state anti-fraud program units to review and handle complaints from non-institutionalized patients (HR Public Law, 2019). This reform is essential because it removes some of the imbalances that result from ignoring the complaints of such patients, thus having a direct impact on customer satisfaction.
Quality Metrics and Pay per Performance
At the same time, to improve the quality of medical care, the US healthcare system and managers have introduced quality measure programs. These are strategies used to evaluate the quality of care, thereby contributing to the well-being of healthcare professionals, as well as morale at work. It is expected that these incentives will help the healthcare organization positively affect the quality of the work performed and increase patient satisfaction. Metric indicators can be structural, process, or outcome.
Nurses are primary healthcare providers and hold the largest percentage of quality assurance measures. That is expected to play the most important role in improving the quality of work and thereby boosting nurses’ morale and, therefore, their performance (Ebrahim et al., 2022). Quality managers will be able to monitor the quality of patient care, staff management, mentoring, scheduling, and treatment planning and assign payments for fair work. The values-based model reduces medical errors and eliminates nurse burnout. Pay for performance offers benefits such as promoting positive patient outcomes, focusing on quality care, supporting safe and efficient clinical practice, and employing qualified medical practitioners.
Professional Nursing Leadership and Managerial Roles
Since organizational change is a complex, multi-dimensional task and the success of change depends on various types of change leadership activities, there has been a growing focus on leadership development research in the changing sector (Ebrahim et al., 2022). One starting point is that with organizational change, leadership must also change. In the American Organization of Nursing Leaders (AONE) competency model of senior nurses, competency is defined as the skills, knowledge, and abilities that guide nursing leaders in their practice (Heinen et al., 2019). In the health sector, the managerial and leadership competencies of nurses and doctors are similar. However, there is a need for a general and non-professional system for teaching leadership and management skills.
This approach provides a common understanding of management and leadership issues throughout the health system. The head nurse leader needs a continuous clinical leadership approach that includes four main activities: promoting effective ongoing communication, strengthening interprofessional and interprofessional relationships, building and supporting teams, and supporting staff participation (Ebrahim et al., 2022). This model of care delivery promotes interprofessional and interprofessional networking, collaboration, and practice, which can improve the quality of care.
In addition, a new trend in healthcare is using technology in practice, which increasingly requires nurses to learn and acquire skills in working with technology. As such, nursing supervisors are given the responsibility of ensuring that nursing teams are technically savvy as part of their nursing roles. The Nurse Leader and Manager will ensure that technology training is available to enhance the professionalism of nurses. In doing so, nurses contribute to the health and safety of patients.
New Trends in Medicine
Redefining the roles or areas of practice of specific health workers is a strategy that makes better use of an increasingly diverse workforce and achieves the right number of the right types of workers and the right combination of them. These changes in professional boundaries can be divided into four categories: improvement, replacement, transfer of authority, and innovation. Nurses are affected the most by these changes, as more and more evidence indicates that this reassignment of roles can improve patient outcomes.
Consequently, expanding the boundaries of nursing practice contributes to the following:
- Increasing the availability of medical care;
- Improving the quality of care and patient satisfaction;
- Regulating the doctor’s workload
- Freeing up their time for counseling and treating patients;
- Raising the professional status of nurses;
- Increased responsibility for the patient.
The spread of technological advances in society has caused revolutionary changes in the education and clinical practice of nurses. However, the correct use of state-of-the-art technological tools improves patient and staff safety, saves nurses’ time, and opens up new opportunities for basic and further nursing education (Archibald & Barnard, 2018). That, in turn, will also address the issue of staff shortages and commitment to the profession. Technology improves the interaction of medical personnel and the completion of documentation (for example, maintaining electronic medical records) and ultimately reduces costs.
Conclusion
The US healthcare system is transforming every day. The need for optimal health for individuals and populations requires a high-quality healthcare delivery system that is effectively and efficiently coordinated within a strong health system. Providing high-quality medical care is one of the most critical tasks of nursing. The development and improvement of the main activities of nursing staff should be accompanied by scientific support. Thus, technology adoption is the primary trend driving change in the healthcare sector. Due to this, there is a paradigm shift, and the nurse’s role as a professional is changing while their responsibilities are expanding.
References
Archibald, M. M., & Barnard, A. (2018). Futurism in nursing: Technology, robotics and the fundamentals of care. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 27(11-12), 2473–2480. Web.
Committee report. Congress. (2019). Web.
Ebrahim, Z. B., Hafidzuddin, S. A., Sauid, M. K., Mustakim, N. A., & Mokhtar, N. (2022). Leadership style and quality of work life among nurses in Malaysia during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. International Academic Symposium of Social Science 2022. Web.
H.R.3253, 116th congress (2019-2020). (2019). Web.
Heinen, M., Oostveen, C., Peters, J., Vermeulen, H., & Huis, A. (2019). An integrative review of leadership competencies and attributes in Advanced Nursing Practice. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 75(11), 2378–2392. Web.
HR Public Law 95-142, 95th Congress. (2019). Web.
Lasater, K. B., Aiken, L. H., Sloane, D. M., French, R., Martin, B., Reneau, K., Alexander, M., & McHugh, M. D. (2020). Chronic hospital nurse understaffing meets COVID-19: An observational study. BMJ Quality & Safety, 30(8), 639–647. Web.
